Rural communities in Louisiana can apply for $30,000 to $35,000 grants to fight tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure. Matthew Valliere, Tobacco Control Program manager, said the nine grants will focus on rural parishes because data shows more smoking and smoking-related illnesses occur in these areas. TCP, which is funded by the Centers for Disease Control Office on Smoking and Health, made $300,000 available for non-profit and community organizations that wish to campaign against tobacco. Organizations seeking grants must explain how they will provide anti-smoking education, create and support smoke-free environments, address tobacco-related health disparities in the community and partner with health care providers to help people quit. The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals reported a number of rural parishes with high smoking rates. “I don’t know that it has so much to do with rural versus urban, as much as it has to do with economic pressure and stress levels,” said mass communication professor Judith Sylvester. Sylvester is in charge of the anti-smoking education program, Smoking Words. Most of her research has been conducted with University students. Sylvester said rural youth perceive a smoking habit as assurance they will fit in when they go to college. She said they might need that assurance more than urban youth. Jefferson Davis Parish has one of the highest smoking rates in the state. About 30 percent of the parish’s population smokes. Jarod Leleux came to the University from Lake Arthur, a small town located in Jefferson Davis Parish. The political science sophomore said he thought the rate of smoking in that parish was about the same as in East Baton Rouge Parish. “I don’t know why they’d necessarily be higher,” Leleux said. “Maybe because there’s nothing really to do to kill time.” Leleux said the anti-smoking programs would benefit towns like Lake Arthur because many youths grow up watching their parents and grandparents smoke. Sylvester said many smokers have grown up around smoking relatives though there is no definite correlation. “In Louisiana, there are 750,000 adults who smoke cigarettes, and an increasing number of Louisiana residents are using smokeless tobacco,” said Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine in a news release this past week. Sylvester said chewing tobacco is popular in rural areas because it is part of the baseball culture that attracts young men. “The reality is tobacco use is taking major toll on our state in terms of disease, death and health care costs,” said Levine. Leleux said he has heard of many grandparents in Lake Arthur dying of smoking-related illnesses. “I’ve seen people with tubes in their throats from smoking,” Leleux said. Sylvester said students who have seen a relative die from a smoking-related illness are usually repulsed by the habit. Leleux said everyone in Lake Arthur would be directly or indirectly affected by an anti-smoking campaign. Groups wishing to apply for the grants should send a letter of intent to the Tobacco Control Program. The letter must be received by 3 p.m. today. For more information about the grants and application process, visit http://www.latobaccocontrol.com.
—-Contact Emily Holden at [email protected]